Searching in the Census with a Surname

This post was written by Lorel Kapke about her personal research.

Searching in the Census with a Surname; can’t find ‘em but you KNOW they are there!

Searching the census for my great grandfather and family by surname in a small town would prove to be challenging. They are listed in the 1905 State Census and the 1920 Unites States Census. But where were they listed in the 1910 Census? I know they did not move viewing surrounding census records and other documents. Referring back to the (SYS folders) censuses (see attachment) I quickly referred to previous and future censuses for the street names and neighbors who lived nearby. Paging through one or two census pages I found something I never thought existed, a census included “location, relation, personal description, nativity, citizenship, occupation, education, ownership of home, but did not include names at all! Written on the left side of the census page was the following message:

“Sheet made from cards already punched by order of Mr. Hunt- Feb 9 -11, Original sheet lost after cards were punched”.

Fortunately, they did offer enough information to peace the puzzle together.

I found three people living in the correct location, ages, birth year, place, race, gender, marital status, father and mothers birth place all added up to a match that is difficult to ignore.

Don’t let surnames get in the way, if you have your files in order, a simple review of an organized data can guide you through your brick wall!